Mathias, J.
The State of Indiana filed a complaint for forfeiture in Grant Superior Court seeking to obtain a 2012 Land Rover LR2 owned by Tyson Timbs (“Timbs”). The trial court ruled in favor of Timbs, and the State appeals, presenting one issue, which we restate as whether the trial court erred in concluding that forfeiture of Timbs’s vehicle would constitute a constitutionally excessive fine.
We affirm.
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To determine whether a fine or forfeiture is “excessive,” for purposes of the Excessive Fines Clause, we consider whether the amount of the forfeiture bears “some relationship to the gravity of the offense that it is designed to punish.” Id. (quoting Bajakajian, 524 U.S. at 334). A punitive forfeiture violates the Excessive Fines Clause “if it is grossly disproportional to the gravity of a defendant’s offense.” Id. (quoting Bajakajian, 524 U.S. at 334).[Footnote omitted.]
Here, there is no question that the nature of Timbs’s offense was serious. He committed a Class B felony. However, our General Assembly has determined that a Class B felony should be punishable by a maximum fine of $10,000. Here, the evidence before the trial court was that Timbs’s vehicle was worth approximately four times the amount of the maximum fine. Although we do not suggest that forfeiture of any asset valued over the maximum fine is automatically a violation of the Excessive Fines Clause, it is instructive to our analysis that the value of the asset sought by the State is well in excess of the maximum fine. Moreover, it is undisputed that the Land Rover was not purchased with the proceeds of any criminal behavior; it was purchased with life insurance proceeds.
Conclusion
Forfeiture of the Land Rover, which was worth approximately four times the maximum permissible statutory fine, was grossly disproportionate to the gravity of Timbs’s offense. We therefore affirm the trial court’s conclusion that forfeiture of the Land Rover violated the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment.
Affirmed. Vaidik, C.J., concurs. Barnes, J., dissents with opinion.
Barnes, Judge, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I realize that my colleagues point to the allegedly “disproportionate” nature of the forfeiture sought by the State here. I understand their concern. I would simply say as follows:
Forfeitures are constitutional and, although some have been found to be excessive, are a useful law enforcement tool. See U.S. v. Ursery, 518 U.S. 267, 290, 116 S. Ct. 2135, 2148 (1996).
We have ruled that, in limited situations, the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment may come into play in a forfeiture case. See $100 and a Black Cadillac, 822 N.E.2d at 1011-12.
However, it is clear and without conflict in the evidence that the vehicle here was Timbs’s and was used to facilitate crime, i.e., to transport Timbs to the place of an arranged heroin buy. The vehicle did not have only a tangential relationship to the crime or to the defendant. It should not matter that Timbs committed the crime using an expensive new Land Rover rather than an old, inexpensive “beater.”
The majority correctly points out that the record reflects Timbs “only” sold heroin twice. I simply posit that Timbs was arrested before the third buy could take place, and we are left to wonder how much heroin he had access to.
I am keenly aware of the overreach some law enforcement agencies have exercised in some of these cases. Entire family farms are sometimes forfeited based on one family member’s conduct, or exorbitant amounts of money are seized. However, it seems to me that one who deals heroin, and there is no doubt from the record we are talking about a dealer, must and should suffer the legal consequences to which he exposes himself.
Timbs dealt heroin and got caught. I vote to reverse the trial court’s denial of the State’s forfeiture request.